Amber Benson

Metro Signing 25.09.2004

After fighting traffic thanks to construction on the 101, a lame breakfast at McD’s, and 110 miles later, Cynthia and I arrived at Metro Comics in Santa Barbara. We met up with all the other Amberholics to get the invitation we were going to give to Amber signed. We had decided as a group that the Amberholics should hang out after the signing, and chose the grill & bar next door as the place. Since, none of us would be Amberholics if it wasn’t in fact, for Amber, we thought it would be cool to extend an invitation to Amber and Ms Benson. None of us actually thought she’d really come, which didn’t matter, the purpose of the shindig (as it was proclaimed on the board) was for all of us fans to hang out together.

At around noon, the Metro people brought the table outside, and everyone went through to purchase photos, autographs, polaroids. After a very difficult decision (nearly wanted to buy all the photos), I settled on the back shot from Restless for myself, and the "naughty" photo from Stuff magazine that my friend had asked me to get signed. Then finally it was time for everyone to line up according to their numbers. Amber showed up a little after 1pm, and they slowly began to filter people in 5-10 at a time. I struck a conversation with one of gals behind me over Amber’s W/T comics, the show itself, and Chance. Finally, Stephanie, Cynthia, and I got filtered in. Though this would be my third time meeting Amber, I had to admit, a small wave of nervousness hit me when I walked into the store and saw Amber was standing taking photos with people. That nervousness soon left though when Cynthia went up and I watched as Amber tried very hard to remember who Cynthia was, and actually did, even remembering what college Cynthia went to. Though the Metro people kept insisting I hurry up and go up to Amber, I stayed back, insisting that I was going to give Cynthia her moment with Amber, something tells me I’m not one of Metro’s fav people. Finally i went up and said to Amber jokingly "do you remember me?" Amber immediately panicked and was like "oh no, no no no, don’t do this to me." I laughed and said it was cool cause I was from San Diego (Comic Con) so that’s not as fresh in her mind as Chicago (Wizard Con), but that I did pick up Chance at San Diego. We talked about Chance, how lovable James was in it, my friend Ben who had mixed up names when he called into WGN radio, I asked her if her mom was around cause I’m suppose to pick up another copy of Chance for my friend. Then, out of nowhere, Amber grabs my hand, pulls my cheek towards her and hugs me. It took me a second to figure out what was going on, but then realize it oh hug from Amber, hey cool! Then I told her that the new movie sounded, interesting, she said she hopes it will be, and I said i’m sure it’ll be great. I went back outside and got back into a 2nd line, for polaroids, Stephanie and Cynthia asked if I remembered to mention the card, which I had totally forgot amongest all the laughing Amber and I were doing. I promised I would remember it when I went back for the photo, and yes, tell Amber I had designed the invite card (though I felt it would be dorky to do that). I finally was able to talk to Diane and get my friend her Chance video, followed by bringing other people who wanted Chance to Diane’s attention. Soon a small group of people crowded around her, wanting Chance. We were filtered back in for photos. I took my photo with Amber and remembered to mention the shindig. I told her I know she’s busy and alI, but a bunch of us were hanging out next door after the signing and naturally she’s invited. She said yea, she thinks they’ll stop by. Then I told her that I designed the card, in a dorky proud voice, and she said that it was awesome, the card’s great. After spending a while outside talking to Ms Benson, the last of us Amberholics finally ventured next door.

Though she had said she might stop by, I still was quite surprised when not soon after sitting down, I turned towards the door and saw Amber approaching. I waved to her so she knew where we were, and commented to the others "hey we know that girl." Amber, Ms Benson, and a few other faithful fans, walked in. Amber greeted us and said "Thanks so much for inviting us!" I think most of us were shocked that she showed up to even reply to that. So then Amber (and her entourage, heh) set their stuff down, and sat down, and ordered drinks. That’s when it finally hit me that wow, she’s actually going to sit down and hang out with us. When she had said they might stop by, I took that as stop by quickly and say hi, not have an hour long lunch with everyone.

Needless to say, the entire lunchen was great fun. It was a great atmosphere, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Sydney, one of the amberholics who couldn’t make it happened to call Charissa to say hi to the rest of the holics. The phone got passed around and ended up in Amber’s hand. They talked on the phone, which ended up being a riot with the lack of reception and Sydney freaking out. With 14 people and all, there were so many conversations going on at once. Since I ended up with the seat next to Amber, I found myself trying to duck out of the way of people talking to Amber a lot. I asked Amber if she was a pro driver now and she said "Yes! I’m great! I run over everyone, pedestrians just keep getting in my way." Amber gave us a bit more insight about the next project, but wouldn’t tell us who she would be playing. I told her that she should play the ditzy girlfriend and she was like "noooo! no no no!" And I said "oh, but it would be so fun!" She commented on how someone on KittenBoard had said she should play the sexually ambigious brother, which then transcended to James in the dress in Chance. She’s also very excited about London Expo. Finally after about a hour, everyone started dispersing, but not before we took some group photos, and Ms Benson went around and hugged everyone. I told Amber "thanks so much for coming" and her and Ms Benson went their way. Soon after, the bill was paid and we all went out separate ways. Coming home, I hit a bit of traffic on the 101, I was so tired when I got home. But needless to say, I had lots of fun. Amber definitely is one of the most unaffected people in the business, and I’m glad to see there are still those kinds of stars left. I thank her and Ms Benson for joining us in the festivities, and hope we didnt scare them too much with our hyperness. I hope everyone enjoys this report, sorry if it was long, I hope I was able to bring to you some of the fun enjoyed on saturday.